


Three Things Phichit Has Adjusted To and The One Thing He Hasn't

by Lalikaa



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Pre-Series, i love phichit and yuuri's friendship a whole lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 16:54:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11925168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalikaa/pseuds/Lalikaa
Summary: Phichit's missing his pets back home, and Yuuri is a Really Good Friend.





	Three Things Phichit Has Adjusted To and The One Thing He Hasn't

There were a few things that Phichit had to adjust himself to once arriving in the United States.

  1. Rooming with one of Japan’s top skaters. When Phichit found out he would be sharing a living space with Actual Skating Genius Yuuri Katsuki, he nearly went into cardiac arrest at the tender age of 18.



As it turned out, despite every bragging right that he deserved, Yuuri was not arrogant in the slightest. He was just a bundle of sweetness, dedication, and a whole lot of anxiety. If Phichit had admired Yuuri before, that admiration had quadrupled.

  1. Attending university in his second language.



The first semester had been rough, mainly due to not knowing anyone, being unfamiliar with the city, and most of all an awful general education Algebra & Trig course- Phichit was terrible at math. Luckily for Phichit, he was able to pass the class thanks to tutoring, and was able to make several friends by the end of the first semester. And thankfully, Yuuri, who had already lived in Detroit for a few years, was able to show Phichit around.

  1. Living thousands of miles away from his friends and family.



This was made even more difficult because Phichit was so _used_ to being surrounded by family and friends. He missed being able to talk to them on a regular basis, but they were all rooting for him from back home. At least social media helped with the separation. Phichit could Skype his parents, comment on photos of his siblings and cousins on Instagram, and tweet his friends whenever he wanted. Not to mention Phichit was also growing his own fanbase on Twitter, which made him insanely happy.

 

Phichit had overcome quite a few challenges and made so many adjustments in his life, yet one thing was too difficult for him to manage; he had to leave behind his pet rabbits, Atid and Dao, and his guinea pig, Taeng. The dorms were strictly pet-free.

It wasn’t until one night in December, about a week after the first semester had ended, that Phichit finally broke down. It had been a hard day; his practice had gone terribly, his sister had been posting photos nonstop on Facebook of a family gathering that had happened yesterday that he of course couldn’t attend, and Yuuri hadn’t been talking to him for the last few days and he didn’t know why.

He swiped through some photos of his pets he had saved on his phone in an attempt to make himself feel better, but it only ended up making him cry harder.

He really wished he could fly home for the holidays, but plane ticket prices had been absurdly high, and he had decided on waiting until summer break to fly home instead.

What was 6 more months anyway?

A whole damn lot, apparently.

After several more minutes of wallowing, Phichit was able to bring down his sobs to sniffles, but his chest still felt so, so tight.

“Phichit?”

Phichit lifted his head from his pillow to find Yuuri standing in the doorway. Oh, god, he really hoped Yuuri wasn’t upset with him for some reason. He really wouldn’t be able to take a fight right now. He would have no other option but to flop over and drown himself in tears if it came to that.

“Yeah?” Phichit managed in a wobbly voice.

“Um… are you ok?”

Phichit wasn’t quite sure how to answer that, because clearly he was not ok at all, and at this point he knew if he said aloud he wasn’t ok, he would burst into tears again.

They ended up staring at each other for a moment, neither one sure of what to say.

“Uh, I’m- I’m sorry, that was a stupid question,” Yuuri said hastily. “I mean, can I- can I do something to- to help you, maybe?”

Phichit felt a bubble of gratitude rise in his throat again, which escaped him as a hiccup.

“Just… I don’t know. I’m a terrible ice skater, I talk too much probably, I miss my family and friends but I don’t want to annoy them, I need chocolate but we don’t have any, and I really just want to cuddle my bunnies but they’re not here and-”

Phichit’s blubbering was cut off by a hug from Yuuri.

This was what Phichit loved about Yuuri; his actions were able to transcend words. Where Phichit relied on words to carry his thoughts, Yuuri relied on reflex. They complimented each other that way.

After the hug, Yuuri immediately turned to his backpack that he had dropped on their messy dorm floor, and brought out a bar of Toblerone. One of Phichit’s favorite.

“How did-?” Phichit began, but Yuuri cut him off by pushing a piece of hazelnut goodness in front of his lips.

Phichit marveled at how on point Yuuri was with his comfort abilities today.

Then, with the same look of determination that was usually reserved for his most difficult skating routines, Yuuri declared; “Phichit, we are going to get you some pets!” Yuuri immediately stood up, stuffed his hat back on his head, and turned around expectantly. “Well?”

“Yuuri, are you serious? Pets aren’t allow-” Phichit exclaimed.

“Well?” Yuuri asked again.

Despite himself, Phichit felt a bubble of a laughter rise up. “Alright, alright!”

Yuuri threw Phichit his scarf as he got up to go put his coat on.

Before Phichit could blink, they were running across campus to the nearest bus stop, snow swirling prominently against the street lights. It was barely past 7 PM, but it felt like the middle of the night; it was already dark and there was hardly anyone else on campus due to winter break. As far as Phichit was concerned, it was only him and Yuuri anyway, kicking up snow and twirling around like idiots in the biting Detroit air.

By the time they reached the bus stop, Phichit was short of breath. Yuuri, with his insane stamina, was of course fine.

The metal bench was too cold to sit on, so the two ended up huddling together for warmth as they waited for the 7:20 bus.

“You know… I thought you were mad at me,” Phichit said, once his breath had returned to him.

Yuuri looked taken aback. “What- why? I wasn’t mad at you at all, I’m so sorry!”

“Well… you weren’t talking to me, and you just looked so upset every time I saw you… I thought I might’ve done something to offend you.”

“That’s- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to act so sulky. I just- I just miss my dog, Vicchan.”

Oh. Ohhhh. That makes so much more sense, Phichit thought.

Because Phichit hadn’t said anything right away in response, Yuuri went on.

“I shouldn’t have acted so cold towards you, though, I really didn’t mean to! I just get… very- very distant when I’m sad. I’m sorry I made you feel like you feel like that.” Yuuri pulled his scarf up to his cheeks. He looked kind of like a puffy turtle.

Phichit just couldn’t be upset with him. He pulled Yuuri in for a hug.

“It’s ok, Yuuri. I know how you feel. I’m sorry you miss your Vicchan.”

The rumble of the bus interrupted their hug.

They both swiped their student IDs and found seats near the front. Like campus, the bus was almost empty.

“Wait, so, where are we even going?” Phichit asked.

“Weren’t you listening earlier? The pet store, of course!”

“Yeah, but like, which one?”

“I was thinking the one off Johnston Street, you know, the one in the strip mall? Tt’s really big, and I they’re open ‘til 9 at least.”

“How do you know the closing time?” Phichit asked, though mostly to keep their conversation going. He had a pretty good idea why.

“I like to go there to pet the dogs.”

“Yuuri, that doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Their university was in a pretty central area of Detroit, so the ride to the strip mall was barely 15 minutes, even with the harsh weather.

The pet store felt incredibly warm and inviting when they stepped in.

Yuuri, as if on instinct, started to walk towards to dog section, but stopped himself. He turned back to Phichit.

“Um… Phichit, what kind of pet do you want? It does have to be something small…”

“Well, I don’t want to get a guinea pig or rabbit, I wouldn’t want Atid, Dao, or Taeng to think I was trying to replace them.”

Phichit was slightly worried that Yuuri would judge him for this comment, but instead he nodded seriously and said, “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Can I help you?” A friendly sales associate greeted them as they meandered further into the store.

“Yeah! Uh, we’re looking for a small animal, like a guinea pig,” Phichit said.

“Our small animal section is just to the right!” The employee responded.

“Thanks!” Yuuri and Phichit chimed as they headed over to the area.

“Ooh, wait, Yuuri, maybe we could get a bird!” Phichit said as they passed a few bird cages.

“Mmm… birds might be a little too noisy.”

“Awwww….”

“Hey, what about one of those?” Yuuri said suddenly, pointing to a cage slightly to their left that had two adorable, fuzzy brown and white striped ferrets.

“A little too big, I think.”

“Yeah…”

They passed the rabbits, which were in a large elevated cage without a roof. Phichit reached down to pet each one. None of their ears felt as soft as Atid or Dao’s.

“Hey, Phichit!” Yuuri called, a few cages down. “What about these?”

Phichit strode over to find Yuuri holding a small rodent. A few steps closer revealed that it was a hamster.

“Ahhh, they’re so cute!” Phichit exclaimed, reaching down into the roofless cage to grab his own.

After playing with them for nearly half an hour, Phichit decided that hamsters would be perfect.

“Ok, which one do you want, then?” Yuuri smiled.

“These three!” Phichit said. He was holding two hamsters, one gray and one tan. The third, goldish colored one was on his head.

“Three…?”

“Well, we can’t just get one! They would get lonely! So I picked these two out, but the one on my head doesn’t want to come down, so I’m keeping him too!”

Yuuri paused a moment, then shrugged. “Seems fair.”

Phichit talked to the sales associate about proper hamster care and all the supplies he would need while Yuuri went off to go pet the dogs on the other side of the check-out counter.

Yuuri came back over once he noticed that Phichit had lugged over a cage and a huge bag of seeds to the counter. The hamsters had already been placed safely in a small box by the sales associate.

“Is that everything?” Yuuri asked.

“I think I want to get them a wheel, and of course they still need bedding.”

Yuuri helped Phichit pick out the rest of the things, and to Phichit’s surprise, insisted on paying for everything once they were ready to check out.

“Yuuri, you can’t! This is all so expensive-”

“It’s fine,” Yuuri said, giving his credit card to the associate. “This is my Christmas gift to you.”

“But isn’t it all still a little much…?”

“Not at all,” Yuuri said simply. “Though it is gonna be rough carrying all this back.”

“We’ll manage,” Phichit decided.

They did look a little ridiculous, Phichit thought, standing next to the bus stop with a fairly sizable cage, a huge bag of bedding, 5 pounds of hamster seeds, and two plastic bags full of other goodies. Phichit had wrapped the box of hamsters in his scarf for extra warmth.

Thankfully, the bus driver was patient as they carried everything into the bus.

“It’s not like there’s anyone else,” the driver reasoned. “Where do you kids live? I can drop you off closer if you want.”

“Really?” Phichit and Yuuri said incredulously.

“Yeah,” the driver grinned. “Happy early Christmas.”

“Thank you!!” They both chimed.

True to his word, the bus driver dropped them off essentially right outside their dorm.

“Yuuri, what is our R.A. gonna say if he sees all this?”

“That they’re gifts for our friend with a hamster,” Yuuri said.

“Pffft… Mark totally wouldn’t buy that.”

“Well, what do you think we should say?”

Phichit thought for a moment.

“Just pray we don’t get caught?”

Yuuri let out a breathy chuckle. “Sounds about right. We can sneak in through the side door, too.”

Miraculously, they weren’t seen by anyone.

By the time they had read all the manuals and fully set up the cage, it was getting close to midnight (there had been a lot of breaks to play with Phichit’s new pets).

“Alright, we need to name these guys,” Phichit said.

“Aren’t they all girls, though?”

“Whatever, you know what I mean! Anyway, I was thinking of Chaloem Chai for the tan one.”

“Isn’t that kind of a long name?” Yuuri questioned.

“It means ‘victory’ in Thai!”

“Oh, well if we’re going along with that theme, we can name one of them Inari. It sort of means ‘successful’ in Japanese.”

“Oooh, that’s good! Inari can be the gray one. That way the gold one can be Champion!”

“We could call her Champ-chan for short!” Yuuri said.

“Or Champy!”

“Champ-chan sounds better.”

“Champy-chan?” Phichit suggested.

Yuuri laughed. “That works.”

“Thanks so much, Yuuri,” Phichit said, placing Champy-chan on his head. “You’ve really cheered me up.”

Yuuri gave Phichit the biggest smile he’d seen from him in weeks. “Any time, Phichit.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Yuri!!! on Ice fic I've posted to Ao3! I hope you enjoyed reading this! Please leave a comment if you can! <3


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